Traditionally, thermal printing and associated printers use heat energy to induce markings on record media often by selectively heating specific areas of record media or by heating a thermal transfer media (e.g., a ribbon) for various printing applications, such as label printing. Such thermal printers include a variety of assemblies, such as a printhead assembly, enclosed within a housing of the printer casing. Conventional printhead assemblies in thermal printers often include a thermal printhead that includes multiple resistor (e.g., heating) elements in burn lines, and, during operation, passage of electric current through such resistor elements energizes the resistor elements to perform a printing operation. In conventional assemblies, exhaustion of a burn line results in the end of life of the printhead, such that the expired printhead is required to be replaced with a new printhead in order to continue performing a printing operation.
Applicant has identified a number of deficiencies and problems associated with conventional printing apparatuses. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these identified problems have been solved by developing solutions that are included in embodiments of the present disclosure, many examples of which are described in detail herein.